Dispassion Defeats Procrastination
Part 2 of 3 on procrastination in art
On procrastination:
The danger isn’t just delayed progress or missing deadlines, but the subtle way this emptiness turns my eye onto myself, increasing my self-centeredness and the accompanying thoughts of vain insignificance.
Most of us are guilty of spending too much time scrolling social media simultaneously happy and depressed. We are happy because we love art - good art of all kinds. It is amazing to so easily see inside studios or see what a writer has to say. As someone who occasionally paints, I’ll post some works, some good, as a kind of journal, but I find it all too easy to really want people to like my pictures, my posts. I even hope people will positively react to images that I know aren’t great. Same is true here on Substack.
If I’m not biting my lip over my last post, I am sinking into a stupor over the great work I do see. The sinking thoughts approach like a nurse with bad news.
How did I get here? Where did these unrealistic expectations come from? When was I poisoned? Whodunnit? How do I get OUT of here?
Vanity. What’s it all for? These kinds of thoughts are debilitating. From my experience, stepping away for a while - a self-imposed period of purposeful procrastination - is a great way to turn off the negativity and turn on progress.
Dispassion
When a work is done or nearly done, it doesn’t feel like a runner crossing the finish line, lungs heaving, body bent or sprawled, triumphant. It is a forced acquiescence. It feels like a sentence hanging in the air - the emdash of the process. You get the point of that sentence, but more could be said. I am happy to have the next thing to move on to, but I also want to look back just a few more times…just to be sure. I want it to be the bird that grew up and flew the nest.
This is where separation is valuable. A painter may set a work aside in a location where they can only give passing glances to the work in limbo or some may turn its face to the wall for months or longer. These glances, these side-eye passes from the hallway are crucial. Our minds can build up a picture from glances in the way a friend can lovingly, patiently drop tiny hints about something I’ve done wrong.
Writers can shelve a work for a week or two. Put the work in a drawer. Turning it upside down to get a different perspective as a painter may do won’t help…I don’t think.
A few things that I have done in my purposeful procrastinations to help get clear and get moving and come back fresh:
Break something - keep something you are working on as an experimental piece. Try out different arrangements, techniques, and processes on this. Let it all out.
Remember the sensual part of your work. Just mix colors. Put pencil to paper. Hear the sound of it, feel the tool in your hand. Try to remember the most simple joys of what you are doing. Make it prayer. We are body and spirit, after all.
Teach.
Experiment with materials.
Spend some time thinking about what you do not like about famous works.
Remember that you are writing your life.
Whatever is done, distance from the work is good and will make the work better as it cultivates dispassion and acts like passing rain that clears the atmosphere.
I used to take lengthy breaks after finishing a painting. It seemed natural at the time. I believe the distance cultivated honesty among the voices inside that push and pull in one direction or another. So many voices. So many examples to follow from books we read, how-to articles, workshops…so many voices, and we need a break from them.
Read a book. Walk the dog more. Take hikes. Make your own supper. Plan your Christmas spending. Write to a friend. Binge watch a show. Do anything except return to the work without a plan, without a direction of travel.
Good procrastination can clear our minds, sharpen our self-criticism, and toughen us up. No one is looking for us. The silence after a work is done is proof. No one calls us excitedly begging to get a preview of our next article or painting. If we show up on Instagram or YouTube, yes, we may get a little positive feedback, but the numbers are always lower that we want. On Substack, it is the same. People are most interested in their own lives (shocker) and a time away from showing any work may be just the thing we need to remind us of what is actually important. No one is clamoring for us, and if they are, they deserve a well-considered piece of work.
My time away from painting is often filled with learning about writing a story. (I’d like to write a novel before I die.) It is a good distraction that still offers creative challenges and nourishment. I may watch a couple of movies that I’d forgotten I wanted to see or just spend more time outside.
Whatever you choose to do, make it like prayer. Do it with purpose. Don’t let life be something that happens to you.
Next time I will give my opinion on when it is time to quit a project.
